Here’s Our Guide to The Good Life For The Dog Days Of Summer

Kids nowadays have got it good, friends. Does your tot wanna be a rock star? There’s a summer camp for that. An ice cream cone as big as her face? Might as well make it a
footlong.

By Katie Bridges & Wyndham Wyeth

Not that we’re counting or anything, but there are 75ish days, give or take, between “School’s out!” and “Back to school.” If we were doing the math, that’d be somewhere in the ballpark of, oh, 1,800 hours to fill. Don’t panic: We got this.

SAVE THE DATE

Because that family Google calendar will be filling up before you know it …

May 15-20: Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music at Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville

WELCOME TO CAMP ENVY

If we were kids again, these are the summer programs we’d be begging our parents to sign us up for

Museum of Discovery’s Space Monkeys

Where: Little Rock

When: June 20

Ages: 4-6 years old

Not gonna lie: We totally crowded around a computer screen here at the office to live-stream the launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket back in February. So needless to say, we’re kinnnnnda space nerds. Unfortunately for us, this camp is reserved for the tiniest of cosmo-tots. (museumofdiscovery.org)

Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design’s Design Camp

Where: Fayetteville, Little Rock, Hot Springs and Wilson

When: June 11-15; June 18-22; June 25-29; June 25-29 (respectively)

Ages: Entering grades 9-12 (except Wilson: entering grades 3-12)

If you haven’t been able to tell from our recurring home features, we’re prone to geeking out on architecture. So if we’d been given the opportunity at a young age to learn from the faculty at the Fay Jones School through hands-on projects? Let’s just say we might’ve ended up in a different line of work. (fayjones.uark.edu)

Nerdies’ Movie Making

Where: Fayetteville and Springdale

When: Fayetteville, July 9-13; Springdale, July 23-27

Ages: 9-14 years old

Kubrick? Scorsese? Spielberg? They all had to start somewhere. Why not at a camp where students go through the entire process of creating a film of their own, from generating an idea to screenwriting to production to editing? Just invite us to the Oscar after-party when your kiddo wins big. (nerdies.me)

By the time your little one finishes this camp, they’ll have realized one of our longtime dreams: becoming a full-fledged rock star. Students learn rock ’n’ roll appreciation, teamwork and confidence through band rehearsal and instrument instruction, and to top it off, the whole camp ends with a live concert put on by students for their friends and family. Jack Black not included. (schoolofrock.com)

Do you have a budding history buff on your hands? One who’s always thrusting their hand in the air first when the teacher asks when the War of 1812 began? (1812, right?) Well, then they’re probably just like us in that they’re always looking for opportunities to fill their head with facts. At this year’s History Camp, students will explore the decades from the 1900s to the 1940s—covering everything from silent films to prohibition to World War II—through activities, crafts and guest speakers. (shilohmuseum.org)

Trike Theatre’s Wizard of Oz Production Camp

Where: Bentonville

When: June 18-29

Ages: Entering grades 3-12

“…and your little dog, too!” Oh, to have been able to play the Wicked Witch in front of a live audience of theater-goers, instead of the hundreds of times we forced our younger siblings to feign terror in the living rooms of our youths. Your kiddos, however, can get the real-deal experience, spending two weeks rehearsing with a real-deal professional director for a real-deal performance in Trike’s black-box theater. Auditions are on May 5 and 12. (triketheatre.org)

Little Rock Climbing Center Camp

Where: Little Rock

When: June 18 – July 13 (ages 6-10 years old) and July 16-20 (ages 11-14 years old)

Do you ever wonder if your children are actually part tree-dwelling primate? Keep your little monkeys off the furniture by enrolling them in a camp where they can safely scale a variety of challenging indoor climbing walls. We’d totally do it if we could. We’re not scared, you’re scared. (littlerockclimbingcenter.com)

Mid-America Science Museum’s Dino Camp

Where: Hot Springs

When: June 25-29

Ages: 6-12 years old

There’ll be a few new faces on the museum’s grounds this summer—18 of them, to be exact. The museum’s newest exhibit—DinoTrek, which puts visitors face-to-face with lifelike replicas of everyone’s favorite extinct reptiles—will be unveiled Memorial Day weekend. If your dino-crazed kids can’t get enough, sign ’em up for this day camp, where they’ll learn how to unearth dino bones and make 3D prints of dinosaur skeletons. (midamericamuseum.org)

DON’T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT

Got tots? You’re gonna need a Tot Tote—trust us

“LIFE WAS beautiful, but it was a bit chaotic and messy,” Loria Oliver told Harry Connick Jr. last October when she appeared on his talk show to chat about her “momvention,” the Tot Tote organizer. “Especially in the car.”

Preach, Mama. We can relate.

The Rogers-based “momventor” (Harry’s word, not ours—though we do think it has a nice ring) went on to explain how the Tot Tote works: You fill the tote’s pockets with road-trip necessities—books, snacks, juice boxes, those Backseat Bingo cards we all played with when we were little. Your kid wears it like a backpack. Once in the car, the nifty tote unzips to become a backseat organizer that hangs on the back of the driver’s headrest. In reach of your kid. Who can then get his own stuff out. And then—if we’re being optimistic—put it back. All. By. Himself.

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Arkansas Life magazine digs deep into The Natural State each month, unearthing surprising stories and exposing readers to new facets of a familiar place. To put it simply, we’re naturally curious—and we’re proud, like you, to call this place home.